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Who the heck wrote this piece of junk!? Not to be rude or anything but this is one of the worst reviews ever.
| Quote | Sound
Where to start... Do you remember the voices from Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate? Its the same ones. I couldn't believe it. Admittedly, I used one of the pre-rolled parties, but I can't believe they could not find new voice talent after two years! From what I can tell, all the sounds are the same. The exact same. No improved quality, even. The good news is that these sounds were great quality and wonderful. The bad news is that was two years ago. I've gotten so used to depth and distance, thuds and amazing new compression rates that I thought something was wrong with my computer.[/b][/quote]
First of all, the sound is great in this game. The soundtrack is great, not as good as Icewind Dale 1's soundtrack but it's still very good. Only problem with sound is that it doesn't fade out and it cuts off a lot during the game. The quality is improved, as far as I can hear it anyways. And guess what? There are lots of new voices! If you would have created your own party.
| Quote | Graphics
Did I mention that the Infinity Engine is two years old? The graphics are dated and ugly by today's standards. Everything seems to be brown yellow or green. Spell effects are the only stand-out feature. Spells are bright and good looking, but definitely not enough to carry the game.[/b][/quote]
This game has never been about the graphics! It's about the story and roleplaying. Brown yellow or green? What the heck are you talking about? To me, the graphics look great. And don't even say Neverwinter Nights has good graphics, they are also a few years old, the game was in production for like 5-6 years. Morrowind and Warcraft 3 had good graphics, not Neverwinter Nights.
| Quote | Gameplay
The old Infinity interface is still here. It has always been a good set up. Starting with character generation and management, the interface is intuitive and like an old friend. Any fan of the other Black Isle games will be able to move around with almost no learning curve. Movement and fighting are a no-brainer. Left click on anything and the game will do what ever action it can to that item. The biggest issue has always been pathfinding. Leading your party through an area with obstacles completely negates the “formation” buttons and commands. Invariably, when trying to move to another area, you have that one strangler that went the long way around. Also, Black Isle has not fixed the annoying issue of your own players blocking your way. Click to go somewhere in a tight space, and you will normally be blocked from moving by one of your own party. Even being dated and needing an AI update, there were no issues with gameplay itself. I did have a strange problem with random crashes, though. At times it was almost every 5 minutes. I'm not talking about a crash to the desktop, either. I mean a full blown hard reboot type of crash. Complete and total lock-up.[/b][/quote]
Did you even bother to play for more then 5 minutes? The interface is not the same. You can change your quick icons to whatever you want. And the portraits are now at the buttom along with a radial type menu. Your right about one thing, pathfinding has not been improved, but it doesn't bother me too much. So far the people with those type of crashes have a radeon card, this is being looked into now. It's not Diablo. You don't go into a game and then try to hack everything and get all the uber items while killing everyone on the screen. MP is fun to play with 6 friends. RPG! You can probably connect to rooms and such with Gamespy, like all other IE games if you ever played them.
| Quote | Conclusion
I have to say: what were they thinking? The Infinity Engine? This is not a new game. Its an expansion pack that has taken too long to get to market. If it had been released two years ago, shortly after the first installment, it would have been worth it, but now? With dated and ugly graphics, little improvement over the original and no easy way to start or join multiplayer, this is just another mediocre title. [/b][/quote]
I have to say: what were you thinking? Posting this terrible review. People, don't listen to this guy, Icewind Dale 2 is a great game.
Sorry for this long thing, but this review was terrible. I doubt the guy played very long, and he used a pre-made party. 
If this gets deleted, oh well, I had to post it to see what other people think, because the review has a 9.1 rating when it should have a 0.
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09-05-2002, 08:33 AM
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#2 (permalink)
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I agree completely, that review was a joke. His main arguement was "graphics are bad". That's it. That's the crux of his review. He didn't review anything. I wish I could review his education, and give IT a rating similar to the one he gave IWD2.
Interface the same? Yea alright, that reviewer needs to wipe his mouth, because he's been talking out of his ass.
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09-05-2002, 12:11 PM
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#3 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2002
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don't get personal with insults, we are talking about a piece of text.
just to make you IW2 fan happy, one of you should be now been writing a second opinion review for your beloved title.
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09-05-2002, 02:22 PM
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#4 (permalink)
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no, it was a lame ill-conceived review and he clearly didn't actually play the game for more than 30 minutes --
a superficial review doesn't deserve a "2nd opinion."
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09-05-2002, 02:27 PM
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#5 (permalink)
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I fully agree with Gandorf. Looks like the reviewer didn't explore all the new possibilities in IWD2. I almost fell out of my chair when he mentioned the lack of new voices and especially the part about GRAPHICS. The Infinity Engine is still going strong and is still beautiful. More polygons than NWN but pre-rendered. 
I'm really not pissed off by this review. If I had read it in my favorite gaming magazine I might've wondered "What the heck are they paying this guy for?".
You're still the best site in my book Gamer's Hell. 
(And doesn't the new interface in IWD2 just ROCK?!" |
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09-05-2002, 02:39 PM
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#6 (permalink)
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is on the 1st circle: Limbo
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Icewind Dale II is a game for RPG fans. Anyone who enjoyed the Baldurs Gate series or the original Icewind Dale will enjoy this game. If you are not a fan of the previous infinity engine games, you will not.
(btw, the infinity engine is older than 2 years, going back to the original BG... that was what, 4 years?)
On the surface, I agree, the game doesn't have a the latest bells and whistles. No snazzy graphics to push my GeForce4, and no Dolby Digital for my new sound card. But with RPGs, those aren't as important. Would you trade bells and whistles for a sub-par story or sub-par "role playing experience"? A lot of Playstation RPGs actually fall into that category.
Icewind Dale II, for RPG fans only. Clearly the reviewer is not a fan.
The best reviews balance objectivity and subjectivity. Go too far on subjectivity leads to threads like these.
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09-05-2002, 02:47 PM
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#7 (permalink)
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Administrator
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good one Eric
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09-05-2002, 06:26 PM
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#8 (permalink)
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09-05-2002, 07:11 PM
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#9 (permalink)
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is on the 1st circle: Limbo
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I can't really agree with the review, if only for the fact that there are many errors. IWDII has a new interface, and the Infinity Engine is four years old.
I can see how the reviewer would be so dissappointed in the graphics after DS, MW, and NWN. Put them side by side, IWDII graphics is just painful. However, it does have good 2D graphics, not the best, but still good. I think the reviewer is less objective in this regard.
Sound is on par with previous IE games, which is to say it's really good.
Gameplay wise, it takes advantage of the IE engine. It has good combat, same as IWD. Though IMO, BG2 gameplay was much better, I personally loved the mage duels.
Role-playing values in this game is minimal. Sure there were few side quests and dialogue options in the beginning, but it's still much more of a Hack and Slash game than an Role-playing game.
I do agree with the expansion comment though. There is a new interface, but very few functionalities were added, and looks much worse than the old interface IMO. As for the change from 2E to 3E, I couldn't care less. New rules, yes but it still plays the same. The rest is much the same as IWD, which means it's actually a step back from BG2.
Overall I'd probably give IWD2 something in the range of 70s for its unoriginality, hack and slash style, and a great engine.
Bringing up NWN was the biggest mistake though. No one hates NWN more than IWD2 fans. That's a huge generalization but the IWD forum is extremely hostile towards BioWare and NWN. Most likely due to the split between BioWare and their beloved Black Isle. Some of them go to the BioWare forum to continue trolling.
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09-05-2002, 07:57 PM
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#10 (permalink)
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the review definatly sux cus of abovementioned reasons
btw about graphics:
they DID polish the engine so it looks better then say BG or IWD1 its just not a new engine.
also this is an RPG (unlike in some aspects NWN)
you gotta get in it and be absorbed by its story line and depth of character creation to find it attractive.
if u was thinking about buying it but decided not to cus of this review then come back on ur decision, and i would recomend buying it.
I have it, been playing it for about 4 days now and i LOVE it (and i havent even seen 10% of the game)
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And the graphics are terrible and there is hardly any sound. I'm not really big on writing reviews. 
